EIFS house rots,
owners lose everything

Ask
the
pros-
August,
2001

By Reggie Bullard

My husband &
I live in Northern Florida close to the Gulf of Mexico. Destin, Florida
to be exact. We just recently went through binding arbitration. Our
house
was suppose to have stucco, according to plans, however, right before
the
stucco was to be applied, one of the workers from his office called us
and asked us to please change to EIFS. At the time, we knew very little
about Stucco or EIFS. We were told that EIFS was a much better product,
and that Stucco would crack all the time. Wefinally, under pressure to change, said
"okay."
Well, before the house was even complete, the stairway that leads up to
the second floor (3 story house) was leaking terribly (there is an
inside
storage area under the stairs), and we notified the builder of it right
away. It was not fixed and we told him of it again. There is wood
underneath
the stairs. The stairs, we also found out later, were out of code. To
make
a very long story short, we tried to get the builder to fix the
problems
with the house many, many times, including the water coming in the
house
on all three floors (right after we moved in - approx.. 3 years ago
now,
wenoticed the house, as well as the
stairs,
was leaking as well.) We had another builder/contractor meet with him
here
at thehouse (alone) to try to get the
situation
resolved. However, it was not going to happen if it cost the builder
any
out-of-pocket.We were stuck with the contract we
signed
and that was that any dispute must be resolved with "binding
arbitration".
We hiredan attorney and demanded arbitration as
we
had no other choice; and it took this long to get there, and we lost
everything.Yes, that's right, the builder won and
was
excused of any warranties etc. Basically, because we failed to fix the
house when wesaw it raining in. We should have
prevented
any further damage, not the builder. Legal people are shocked we lost,
and so arelay people. There was even video
presented
that showed water pouring through a light fixture & ceiling in the
house; andnumerous other areas. The bottom line is
that
we still have to fix this house, and looks like we are going to have to
pay thebuilders attorney fees over almost
40,000.00
plus our attorney fees, which are more than that even. We were to have
CDXPlywood on the house, and found out
after
the fact, that the builder changed it to OSB. The city could not
inspect
the wood topass it, as it was all covered up at the
time
they were called out by the engineer on the house (which was also their
expertwitness) to inspect and pass. The
engineer
signed saying it was what it should be (CDX), and the city accepted
that
(his word).We do not know whether to appeal this,
or
what. My husband loses all his liquid money now, and says he cannot
affordanymore attorney fees. Our attorney says
there
was clear bias...who knows *shrug* - but one thing is certain, it is a
terribleinjustice. Oh, the two attorneys (ours
and
the builders) made an agreement to use only one arbitrator, not three,
as we havefound out you are suppose to have. Any
legal
advice; or perhaps you may know of somewhere else we could turn, would
verymuch be appreciated. And any advice as
to
whether or not we should try to patch this (?) and not tear it all off
(our twoexperts said it all had to come off and
the
stairs had to be torn down and rebuilt) would be appreciated as well. I
do want tomention before closing, that there is
also
a major support beam on the side of the house (no windows or anything
around
it)that is rotted, the wood is; it's like
black
"hay". It's being supported by poles right now. (This was shown to the
arbitrator buthe stated he was unclear on where the
water
was coming from there, and even if clear on it, we failed to fix the
house,
sotherefore no warranty.) What would be
the
cheapest way for us to fix all of this since we have lost everything? -
but at thesame time we do not wish to have a house
that
will only last a few years. One of our experts reports stated, I
believe,
it wasabout 100,000.00 to fix the house (add
that
to another 100,000.00 in legal fees). We are in a bind, as you can see.
Again, anyhelp, advice etc., would be so very much
appreciated